Rolling door barrel



Feb. 6, 1951 J. A. LANGER 2,540,742

ROLLING DOOR BARREL 7 Filed June 4, 1946 IN V EN TOR.

57 JOSEPH A. LANGER ATTORNEY Patented Feb. 6, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE ROLLING DOOR BARREL Joseph A. Langer, Richmond, Calif.

Application June 4, 1946, Serial No. 674,360

7 Claims. (01. 160-317) This invention relates to improvements in thebarrel mechanism of a rolling door.

Rolling doors as concerned in this invention, consist of a heavy curtainfabricated of interlocking slats and attached to a tubular steel shaftor barrel, which is placed over the doorway and around which the doorrolls when it is raised. Within the barrel is a series of helicaltorsion springs for counterbalancing the weight of the curtain. One endof each spring is secured to an anchoring means such as a shaft headcasting which in turn is rigidly attached to a tension shaft passingthrough the length of the barrel and through the center of the springs.The other end of each spring is secured to a barrel head casting or somesimilar anchoring means rigidly attached to the inside of the barrelcasing, but free to rotate on the tension shaft. By turning the tensionshaft the tension on the spring or springs can be adjusted so that thedoor may be raised and lowered with minimum or a predetermined effort.Wide doors made of heavy materials tend to sag in the center and thusimpede the proper use of the tension shaft. Moreover, in any suchrolling door, the spring will move the barrel head casting and thebarrel longitudinally relative to the tension shaft unless provision ismade for holding the barrel head casting in place on the shaft; andwhere there are a plurality of springs and barrel head castings, thistendency is aggravated. Ordinary means used to prevent this displacementresult in great friction which both prevents easy operation of the doorand causes great wear on the parts.

One object of this invention is to provide a sectional type of tensionshaft which is particularly useful on wide doors which sag because it isnot feasible to have center posts.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for reducingfriction, prolonging the life of the parts and making the operation ofrolling doors smoother and easier.

Another object of the invention is to provide means to enable manualoperation in rolling doors without a reduction gear mechanism.

' Other objects and advantages of this invention will appear from thefollowing description.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a front view of a rolling door with a barrel mechanismembodying a preferred treatment of this invention, with part of thebarrel casing cut away to show the interior mechanism;

barrel showing one of the torsion springs;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the top of the door illustratingthe method in which the door rolls around the barrel;

Fig. 4 illustrates a reduction gear mechanism used for raising orlowering heavy doors; and

Fig. 5 is a broken section showing the interior of the barrel andillustrating the way in which the sections of the tension shaft arejoined together.

In the drawing the door it is affixed to the outer surface of a barrelII which is held above the doorway I2 and attached by some appropriatemeans, such as clamps, to the wall I3 above the doorway. If such a dooris easy to raise it may be operated manually by lifting on the bottom ofthe door or by a chain or cord attached to the barrel. But if the dooris too heavy to enable this type of manual operation, a reduction gearsystem such as that shown in Fig. 4 may be used. As the chain I l ispulled, the gear wheel I6, to

which the chain is attached, engages the gear IT attached to the barrelI I, rotating the barrel and V weight. In the invention concerned thecounterbalancing mechanism is placed inside the barrel and consistsprincipally of torsion springs I8, the torque of the turning barrelbeing counterbalanced by the forces of the springs. One end of eachtorsion spring I8 is secured to a shaft head casting I9 or some similaranchoring means which in turn is rigidly pinned, i. e. secured againstunwanted rotation, to a section of the tension shaft 2d passing throughthe center of the coil spring I8 and of the barrel II. The other end ofeach spring I8 is secured to a matching anchoring means, such as abarrel head casting 2|, which is rigidly attached, i. e., in such amanner as to prevent rotation, to the barrel casing 22 but is free torotate on the tension shaft 2!] which it surrounds, thus as each springI3 is unwound and its length decreases, there exists a tendency for thebarrel head casting M to move, relative to the tension shaft 2d, towardthe shaft head casting is.

l-leretofore, to maintain their proper relative positions and to preventbuck ing of the springs, some device such as a pin through the shaft ora collar around the shaft was used to exert thrust on each barrel headcasting 2i.

The force of friction caused by this thrust is what necessitates thereduction gear to raise and lower even small many torsion springs, thefriction is many times multiplied, and manual operation even with areduction gear becomes difficult or impossible, and some form of poweroperation is required. This invention overcomes this difliculty.

This improvement will be described in connection with one sprin and itscooperating parts, but it is to be understood that most doors haveseveral sets of these parts.

En-circling the tension shaft 28 and rigidly pinned to it is a thrustsleeve 23. Between this thrust sleeve and the barrel head casting 2| isa thrust bearing preferably a type of ball or roller bearing 25. Thethrust sleeve 23 should be made in such a shape as best to fit againstthe bearing, the actual shape being therefore dependent on the type ofbearing employed. In the drawing accompanying this description a ballbearing 2 is illustrated. By this invention, when the door is raised andlowered and the spring contracts and expands, not only is the relativelongitudinal position of the barrel head casting and the tension shaftmaintained, but also the friction is reduced to a negligible quantitybetween the rotating barrel head casting and the thrust sleeve 23 by thethrust bearing 24. Steel doors having a curtain of 160 square feet canbe made to operate manually without any reduc tion gear and thisexpensive piece of apparatus may be dispensed with.

Since the counterbalancing action of the torsion spring remainsconstant, unaffected by the position of the door, wide doors employingmany torsion springs can by this invention be made to operate manuallythrough a reduction gear with great ease.

The other feature of my invention relates to the fact that a wide doorof this type is very heavy and sags in the middle. If the tension shaftis constructed in one piece, as heretofore, it bends to correspond tothe sag in the barrel. This results in a binding action of the shaft inits several supports and sometimes shears the parts causing substantialrepair trouble.

The present invention overcomes this difiiculty by having the torsionshaft 2i! made in short sections with a universal joint connection 25between each section.

In Fig. 2 and also in Figs. 1 and 5 are shown a preferred embodiment ofthis type of flexible connection between the several shaft sections. Inthese drawings a universal joint 25 connects each two shaft sections,and a spacing member 26 rigidly attached to the barrel casing, and freeto rotate on the shaft, supports the shaft and gives it sufficient playto enable a slight angular displacement to occur without bending theshaft, and at the same time prevents any sagging of the barrel frombringing the springs or the universal joints to bear against theinterior wall of the barrel casing, so it would interfere with the freerotation of the barrel. The several sections of the shaft are joinedwith flexible universal joint connections as shown in Fig. 5 betweensections where the springs are installed, and this allows the tensionshaft 26 to perform its functions unaffected by the sagging of thebarrel which supports a heavy door. In this way each torsion spring isindividually suspended on its own short section of shaft and no matterhow much the barrel sags the parts will turn freely.

While I have shown one form of universal joint in the drawings, I do notwish to be limited thereby as there are many forms of universal joints.It is understood that the form of this invention as herein described isa preferred example, and that changes may be made in materials and inthe size, shape and arrangement of parts without departing from thespirit of the invention or the scope or the subject of the subjoinedclaims.

I claim:

1. In a rolling door barrel adapted to receive around its peripheryflexibly joined sections comprising the door, the combination of abarrel casing around which the door rolls; a plurality of shaft sectionsset end to end through the center of said barrel casing; a universaljoint connection between successive shaft sections; anchoring meansrigidly attached to each shaft section; matching anchoring means rigidlyattached to said barrel casing and in which said shaft sections arefreely rotatably supported; and hellcal springs severally connectingsaid anchoring means to their associated matching anchoring means.

2. In a rolling door barrel adapted to receive around its peripheryflexibly joined sections comprising the door, the combination of abarrel casing around which the door rolls; a plurality of shaft sectionsset end to end through the center of said barrel casing; a universaljoint connection between successive shaft sections; anchoring meansrigidly attached to each shaft section; matching anchoring means rigidlyattached to said barrel casing and in which said shaft sections arefreely rotatably supported; and spring means severally connecting saidanchoring means to their associated matching anchoring means.

3. In a rolling door barrel adapted to receive around its peripheryflexibly joined sections comprising the door, the combination of abarrel casing around which the door rolls, a plurality of shaft sectionsset end to end through the center of said barrel casing; a universaljoint connection between successive shaft sections securing themtogether for conjoint rotation; a shaft head casting rigidly attached toeach shaft section; barrel head castings rigidly fastened to theinterior wall of the barrel casing in rotatable relation to the severalshaft sections; and helical springs severally connecting the shaft headcastings on the shaft sections to their associated barrel head castings.

4. In a rolling door barrel adapted to receive around its peripheryflexibly joined sections comprising the door, the combination of abarrel casing around which the door rolls, a plurality of shaft sectionsset end to end through th center of said barrel casing; a universaljoint connection between successive shaft sections securing themtogether for conjoint rotation; a shaft head casting rigidly attached toeach shaft section; barrel head castings rigidly fastened to theinterior wall of the barrel casing in rotatable relation to each shaftsection; and spring means severally connecting the shaft head castingson the shaft sections to their associated barrel head castings.

5. In a rolling door barrel adapted to receive around its peripheryflexibly joined sections comprising the door, the combination of abarrel casing around which the door rolls; a shaft through the center ofsaid barrel casing; an anchoring means rigidly attached to the shaft; asecond anchoring means rigidly attached to the barrel casing in whichmeans said shaft is free to rotate; a helical spring connecting thefirst an-' choring means to the second anchoring means; and a frictionreducing bearing means which 5 holds the second anchoring means in placerelative to the shaft.

6. In a rolling door barrel adapted to receive around its peripheryflexibly joined sections comprising the door, the combination of abarrel casing around which the door rolls; a plurality of shaft sectionsset end to end through the center of said barrel casing; a universaljoint connection between successive shaft sections; anchoring meansnon-rotatably attached to each shaft section; matching anchoring meansnonrotatably attached to said barrel casing and in which said shaftsections are freely rotatably sup ported; spring means severallyconnecting said anchoring means to their associated matching anchoringmeans; and friction reducing bearing means for each shaft section whichholds said matching anchoring means in place axially relative to theshaft.

7. A raising and lowering mechanism for a rolling door comprising anexterior tubular shaft around which the door rolls; a series of interiorshafts set end to end within said exterior tubular shaft; a universaljoint connection connecting the interior shafts in end-to-endrelationship whereby relative angular displacement of each interiorshaft portion is facilitated; spacing members fastened to the inside ofsaid exterior tubular shaft and within which said interior shafts arefree to rotate, each said spacing member being placed near a connectionbetween adjacent shaft sections; a plurality of anchoring meansnon-rotatably attached to the interior wall of said exterior tubularshaft, and each surrounding a portion of one section of said interiorshaft and in which said interior shaft section is free to rotate; aplurality of anchoring means each nonrotatably fastened to an interiorshaft section; a plurality of helical spring means, each connecting oneof the first of said anchoring means to a second said anchoring means onthe same shaft section; and a plurality of low-friction bearing meanskeyed to said shaft sections adjacent each first-mentioned anchoringmeans whereby the latter is held in place relative to its interior shaftsection and as said first mentioned anchoring means rotates relative tothe interior shaft section the friction between them is substantiallynegligible.

JOSEPH A. LANGER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,135,563 Watson Apr. 13,. 19151,795,390 Graystone Mar. 10,, 1931 1,975,633 Cakora Oct. 2, 19342,190,098 Dautrick Feb. 13, 1940

